Rock 'n' Roll History for
July 16


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1900 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
His Master's Voice, the logo of the Victor Recording Company and later RCA Victor, was registered with the US Patent Office. The logo shows the dog, Nipper, looking into the horn of a gramophone.

1955 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
"Baby Let's Play House" becomes Elvis Presley's first national hit when it enters the Billboard Country Best Sellers list, where it will top out at #5. The song had been written and recorded a year earlier by Arthur Gunter, but Presley's version used some altered lyrics and a different arrangement.

1959 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
The Coasters record "Poison Ivy" at the Atlantic studios in New York. The song would become their sixth consecutive Billboard Top Ten hit, rising to #7, as well as reaching #15 in the UK. A later biography of the song's writers, Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller, claims that the lyrics are actually referring to sexually-transmitted disease and not to the poisonous, itch-causing plant.


1960 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
Hank Ballard And The Midnighters become the first group to place three records on The Billboard Hot 100 at the same time - "Finger Poppin' Time", "Let's Go, Let's Go, Let's Go" and "The Twist".

1962 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
The Beach Boys, along with their acting manager, Murry Wilson, attend the Capitol Records office on Vine St. in Hollywood, California, where they receive a $300 bonus for signing a seven year recording contract. Each of the five members, Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Carl Wilson, David Marks and Dennis Wilson would receive one cent for each single sold and three cents for each album.

1966 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
Eric Clapton formed a new band he called Cream, along with two former members of the Graham Bond Organization, bassist Jack Bruce and drummer Ginger Baker. The trio lasted just two years, but left us with some classic Rock tunes like "Sunshine of Your Love" and "White Room". To this day, Clapton says he does not look back on those days with great fondness, but many fans feel that he was at his best at this point.

July 16
The Lovin' Spoonful release "Summer In The City". Although they would place seven straight songs in Billboard's Top Ten, this would be their only number one.

July 16
Tommy James And The Shondells started a two week run at #1 on the US singles chart with "Hanky Panky", a song first recorded by The Raindrops in 1963. A Pittsburgh DJ had begun playing the two year old recording and regional record sales had reached over 80,000. James called the members of his now defunct band, but they were no longer interested. He recruited a group called The Raconteurs to be the new Shondells and took the master tape of "Hanky Panky" to Roulette Records, who released it. Despite being a huge hit in the US, it could only reach #38 in the UK. Tommy would later say, "One night I was playing for 20 drunks in a bar in Michigan, and the next night I'm playing for 10,000 screaming fans in Pittsburgh. It was literally overnight."

1967 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
Arlo Guthrie, the son of Folk legend Woody Guthrie, debuts "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" at the 1967 Newport Folk Festival. At 18 minutes and 20 seconds long, the song would take up the entire first side of his debut album, "Alice's Restaurant", which reached #17 on the Billboard 200 in March, 1968.


1969 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
The Beatles worked on two new George Harrison songs, "Here Comes The Sun" and "Something" during recording sessions at Abbey Road studios in London.

1972 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
Smokey Robinson performed his final show with The Miracles before going solo. They had been together since 1959. Throughout the 1970s and '80s, Smokey would continue to make hit records, including "Cruisin'" (#4 in 1979), "Being With You" (#2 in 1981) and "Just To See Her" (#8 in 1987), while The Miracles would reach #1 in 1975 with "Love Machine".

1976 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
Kenny Loggins and Jim Messina announce that they were dissolving their partnership after a six year run. The pair had cracked the Billboard Top 40 three times, including the #4 hit "Your Mama Don't Dance" in 1972. Loggins' solo career would bring 14 more US Top 40 hits.

1977 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
Barry Manilow had the #1 LP on the Billboard Hot 200 album chart with "Barry Manilow Live". It has since been certified quadruple Platinum.

July 16
Shaun Cassidy's remake of The Crystals' 1963 hit "Da Doo Ron Ron" topped the Billboard Hot 100. Shaun would say that he first heard the song when he was in kindergarten and that it was the first record he ever owned.

1980 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
Donna Summer marries Bruce Sudano, a former keyboard player in the Pop /Rock band Alive N Kickin'. Within two years, they welcome two daughters: Brooklyn and Amanda Sudano.

1981 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
Harry Chapin was killed in an accident on the Long Island Expressway. Chapin's blue 1975 VW Rabbit burst into flames when it was hit from behind by a tractor-trailer truck. The 38 year old Chapin is best remembered for his top 20 hit "Taxi" in 1972 and "Cat's in the Cradle", a number-one in 1974.

July 16
Jefferson Starship is awarded a Gold record for the album "Modern Time". Grace Slick only made a few vocal appearances on the LP because it was nearly finished when she rejoined the group.


1982 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
Bill Justis, whose 1957, Billboard #2 hit "Raunchy" is credited with being the first instrumental Rock 'n' Roll hit, died of cancer at the age of 55. In the 1960s he became a successful record producer and wrote the scores to several movies in the 1970s, including two Burt Reynolds films, Smokey and the Bandit (1977) and Hooper (1978).

1995 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
Wayne Osmond of The Osmonds underwent a successful brain tumor operation at Duke University Medical Centre, North Carolina.

1996 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
Michael Jackson performs at a birthday party for the Sultan of Brunei and is paid between 15 and 20 million dollars.

July 16
John Panozzo of Styx died of a hemorrhage brought on by alcoholism at the age of 48. The band had a string of hits that included "Grand Illusion", "Mr. Roboto", "Come Sail Away" and "Babe".


2012 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
Motown studio musician and Funk Brothers bassist Bob Babbitt died of cancer at the age of 74. Babbitt's work can be heard on Stevie Wonder's "Signed, Sealed, Delivered", The Temptations' "Ball of Confusion", Edwin Starr's "War" and "Inner City Blues" by Marvin Gaye.

2014 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
70-year-old Blues guitarist Johnny Winter was found dead in a hotel room near Zurich, Switzerland. Although the cause of death was never officially given, friends say he suffered from emphysema combined with pneumonia. Johnny had overcame albinism and poor eye sight and rose to fame as an arena-level concert draw in the early to mid-'70s.

2016 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
Bonnie Brown, of the Country / Folk trio The Browns, died of lung cancer at the age of 77. The trio, which included her brother Jim Ed Brown and sister Maxine, reached the Billboard Hot 100 with the chart topping "The Three Bells" in 1959 and again in 1960 with "Scarlet Ribbons" (#13) and "The Old Lamplighter" (#5).

July 16
A two-page, handwritten letter from Paul McCartney to Prince was sold by Boston's RR Auction for nearly $15,000. The note, which begins "Dear Princely person," shows the former Beatle asking for a donation to help establish the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, which McCartney co-founded in 1996.

2023 - ClassicBands.com

July 16
Jane Birkin, a British and French actress and singer, passed away at the age of 76. She had teamed with Serge Gainsbourg to top the UK chart and reach #58 in the US with "Je t'aime... moi non plus" ("I love you… me neither") in 1969. The song was banned in several countries due to its overtly sexual content.



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